Tourers to Oulton
As well as a debut visit to Thruxton in June, the Historic Touring Car Challenge will return to the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting at the end of August. The booming series, which features Rovers, Capris and Camaros, will have four races in the UK before the season finale in October at the Algarve Classic Festival.
Citroen star Kris Meeke has spoken out against the decision to drop Craig Breen in favour of Sebastien Loeb on three rounds of the World Rally Championship this season.
Loeb, who tested twice with Citroen last season, returns to drive the factory C3 WRC in Mexico, Corsica and Spain this year, while Irishman Breen will tackle the remaining 10 rallies. While Meeke is delighted to see Loeb returning, he’d hoped Citroen might have run a third car for the nine-time world champion.
Meeke told MN: “I am really pleased Sebastien [Loeb] is coming back. Dare I say it, he’s not exactly a current driver, having been away from the sport full-time for five years, but he’s still a nine-time champion and there’s no better exponent of our sport. He’s a very, very high calibre driver and it would have been fantastic to see him back full-time in the team.
“That said, one thing I don’t
Skoda bosses move to rule out WRC return
Skoda has poured cold water on speculation that it could be on the verge of building a World Rally Car to return to the sport’s top flight.
Skoda departed the WRC’S premier class at the end of 2005 and returned with a focus on the WRC2 category. Motorsport boss Michal Hrabanek says that’s where the firm will stay.
Hrabanek had sparked interest among the WRC media by saying he would like to see Skoda back. At the team’s end of season press conference in the Czech Republic he said: “It takes two years of preparation for such a project. We feel very comfortable in the WRC2, but of course we would also like to prove ourselves in the top class [of the WRC].”
Asked by MN to qualify those comments, a spokesman from the team said: “There are no exact plans to enter WRC for Skoda. The WRC2 category fits very well to the Skoda brand, we are close to our customers and get a good value for money.
“There are no plans to enter WRC. But as Mr Hrabanek said during a press conference: if he would get task to enter this category, Skoda Motorsport would be ready to do it.”
Industry insiders say any WRC return from the Volkswagen Group – including Skoda, Seat, Audi or Volkswagen – would only come once the WRC had demonstrated the potential for using alternative energies.